Why does art matter and why am I an artist?
Art, beyond the day to day creating of a mood, lifting your spirits, reminding you of you, your past, a loved one, a memory, Art reflects.
Art reflects like a mirror our lives, our human situation, our past, our present, our hopes and dreams for the future. It is a pinnacle of creativity, ideas, inspiration and endeavour. If lifts us up!
Art makes a home. For me a home has life, and colour, so this is an important part of my home, art that I love on my walls. Art by friends, by my late mother, by people I admire, art that reminds me where I came from and what I aspire to. Art that quite simply makes me happy on a daily basis!
Why am I an Artist?
Well for most of my life I did not DARE to call myself that...but I felt it...I was born that way, my identity. When I was forbidden from studying art beyond the age of 16 (very overbearing father)
it felt like the end of the world!
My art, whatever that was, became a precious thing for me. I guarded it so staunchly I even protected it from myself, I started to not be creative in case I messed it all up and ruined what was so important to me! I would soak up art all around me like a hungry sponge!
For much of my life I had taken on the blocks and barriers that others mirrored to me. I felt it was too late for me to do anything except to decorate my home in an artful way! (rolls eyes!)
It's never too late, it's never too early! I create my art for no one but myself. If others enjoy it, great, but that is not the point for me. I do it because it is necessary to me now!
Some years ago i had a pivotal "If not now, when?" moment and immediately started to simply educate myself, to try lots of different things until I tried, eventually, the one thing that totally terrified me (because it was important for me, clearly), life drawing and figurative art....no looking back from then on!
For me art is a mirror. i reflect back what I see in the people I draw. I paint their strength and vulnerability, their heart and spirit. I paint the possibilities I see within them. For me the human connection is everything. We are all extraordinary and beautiful in our own way and this is what I seek to reflect in my art. It is magnetic to me and I hope to you too.
km 2/8/21
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